Speeches and statements by Minister of Finance Siv Jensen

- International co-operation on regulation of financial markets is in the interest of all countries, said Minister of Finance Siv Jensen (Progress Party) in her speech at Finance Norway’s Capital Markets Day 2018 today.

- Building buffers in our financial system is the best way to make our economies less vulnerable to the consequences of financial disruptions, said Minister of Finance Siv Jensen (Progress Party) in her speech at Policy Exchange today.

"Under the current government, transfers from the fund to the fiscal budget have been at - or below - 3 pct. of the fund’s value (2014 to 2017). In the budget for 2017, the transfer is estimated to equal 3 pct. The actual use of fund revenues is now in accordance with the expected real return going forward", the Minister of Finance Siv Jensen said at the press conference.

- It gives me great pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to Norway and to the 23rd meeting of the Peer Review Group here in Oslo, the Minister of Finance Siv Jensen said in her opening remarks at the Global Forum on Transparency and Exhange of Information.

"Local, private ownership is essential to a versatile Norwegian business environment. It is therefore important to both lower the corporate tax and reduce the wealth tax - especially for business owners - to strengthen the private Norwegian ownership" said Minister of Finance, Siv Jensen.

"The most important international market for us is clearly the European market. Ever since it took effect in 1994, the Agreement on the European Economic Area - the EEA - has been the cornerstone of our Europe policy" the Finance Minister said in her Speech at London School of Economics.

"The large petroleum revenues over the past 15 years, in combination with our fiscal guideline, have implied saving a large part of the petroleum Revenues", Finance minister Siv Jensen said under her speech at the Finance Norway’s Capital Markets Day.

It is an honour for me to give this talk on the management of the
Norwegian Petroleum wealth and the Government Pension Fund
Global. I would like to thank the sponsors, the Columbia Center on
Sustainable Investment, the Tamer Social Enterprise Program, and
the Center on Global Economic Governance, for hosting this event.

"I am very glad to be here because European cooperation is so important to us, both economically and politically. The EU and EU member countries are among our closest partners. The geopolitical crisis in Ukraine has reminded us how important it is to stay together and defend our values", said Minister of Finance, Siv Jensen.

Over the last few months Norway has witnessed a political debate about whether the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) should divest from all coal or petroleum companies. Today we announce that we have asked an Expert Group to look at how we should address the issue of climate gas emissions from coal and petroleum companies. The Expert Group's conclusions will be presented in Autumn 2014. However, independently of its recommendations, the GPFG will continue to be a well-diversified, global financial investor and not a policy tool, says Minister of Finance Siv Jensen.